Was: [CR]Hetchins on eBay; Now: Bicycle literature

(Example: Bike Shops)

From: "Paul Williams" <castell5@sympatico.ca>
To: "Jerome & Elizabeth Moos" <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>
References: <20060226001651.45873.qmail@web82205.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Subject: Was: [CR]Hetchins on eBay; Now: Bicycle literature
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:52:41 -0500
reply-type=original
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

Jerry,

Not strictly lightweights but ....

Although I am not familiar with the American literature, there is a book by Glen Norcliffe, The Ride to Modernity The Bicycle in Canada, 1869-1900 (Toronto: U. Of Toronto Press, 2001) which deals with many of the issues you raise below. There is some discussion of racing and racing bikes (and the rise of Canadian companies such as CCM) but for the most part Glen deals with the place of the bicycle in a period of economic, social and technological change and progress.

Glen, a Geography Prof. at York University in Toronto, regularly presents at the International Cycle History Conferences also has quite the amazing collection of bikes of all ages - which toured parts of this province last year:

http://www.brucecounty.on.ca/museum/bicycle/index.htm

Cheers,

Paul.

Paul B. Williams, PhD (Queen's)
70 Viscount Ave.,
Ottawa, On, K1Z 7M9
ph: 613-761-3867
e-mail: castell5@sympatico.ca


----- Original Message -----
From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos
To: Edward Albert


<classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>; <lowiemanuel@yahoo.ca> Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2006 7:16 PM Subject: Re: [CR]Hetchins on eBay


>I think the statement was mine, not Emanuel's, and what I said was that
>Paramount was for many years the only top-quality American ROAD bike made
>in any reasonable quantity. I think that is a pretty accurate statement.
>Most of the builders you cite built exclusively or mostly track frames, and
>track racing, which was the classic American form, did survive, at least in
>the form of 7-day races, the long dark age of American cycling from say the
>20's to the late 60's. But if there was another top American road bike
>made in large enough numbers to be nationally advertised in the two decades
>following WW II, I don't know what it was.
>
> Of course, one could argue that America never did have any significant
> road cycling in the "golden age" and that there was no renaissance in the
> late 60's but the discovery of the European form of road cycling virtually
> for the first time. If this is true, it makes the Paramount even more
> remarkable. Anyone know of any good books or other sources which discuss
> American road, as opposed to track, racing between say 1890 and 1920?
> Certainly American's did a lot of cycling on the road for recreation and
> transportation before the automobile killed most of this off, but I've
> seen little information about road competition in that era.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Big Spring, TX
>
>
>
>
> Edward Albert <Edward.H.Albert@hofstra.edu> wrote:
> Maybe I have missed part of this discussion Emanuel but the notion that
> there was just "one lone high end USA-made classic frame"
> is, how should I say this, bovine manure. There was a whole tradition,
> much related to the track, of builders who did wonderful work. Start
> with Pop Brennan, go to Alvyn Drysdale, doen't forget my pet favorite
> Dick Power, add the folks at Pierce Arrow just for fun...on and on.
> Your also don't seem to know your own Canadian Tradition. Much more
> than CCM , much as I like and have a flyer. Just take a stop at Mike
> Barry Bicycle Speciaties.com site and look through his museum of
> wonderful Canadian builders......I don't know where you are coming from.
> And BTW, you should have tried my mother's brisket....to die for.
> Edward Albert -- ex owner of maybe 5 thrashed and trashed Marinoni's in
> -- Chappaqua, NY
>
>>>> Emanuel Lowi 02/25/06 4:21 PM >>>
> Steve Maas wrote:
>
>> I continually marvel that a country with a national
>> personality that is so
>> socially conservative could produce so many
>> bicycles--not just
>> Hetchins--that are so completely over the top, to
>> use the British term.
>> The contrast is absolutely extraordinary. It's as if
>> there was a
>> component of the British personality in painful
>> conflict with the
>> stereotype, just aching to get out. And this is how
>> it was expressed,
>> not just by the folks who made them, but by those
>> who bought and loved
>> them.
>>
>> Bicycles from Britain say more about the time,
>> place, and people they
>> came from than those of any other nation. (France is
>> perhaps a close
>> second. In contrast, Italian bikes say virtually
>> nothing about Italy;
>> they could have been made anywhere.) Look at my
>> Carlton, for example.
>> Handsome, carefully hand-cut lugs combined with
>> crapola drop outs
>> stamped out of an old chunk of 3/16" steel plate.
>> What on earth were
>> they thinking of? This says quite a bit about how
>> the country's industry
>> couldn't get its act together back in the 1960s. The
>> Hetchins "curly"
>> stays were purportedly based on a need to "soften"
>> the ride, and were
>> based on both an incorrect assessment of the need
>> and an incorrect
>> technical concept. But they look cool, really cool.
>> Quintessential
>> mid-twentieth-century British industrial reasoning,
>> succeeding in spite
>> of itself. How can you not love it?
>>
>
> The above is a more complete expression of what I was
> attempting to say in my contribution to the recent
> Paramount thread.
>
> There is a kind of Phineas Fogg quality to British
> cycles that I just love. So muck quirky individual
> poersonality, each marque -- with tall those
> delightful names -- reflecting in some inexplicable
> way the town or street the manufacturer called home.
>
> And the British cycling industry was so organic. They
> were not trying to prove anything to anyone. They
> needed bicycles and so they made them and the rest was
> joyous anarchy matched to British steel, a very
> traditional product.
>
> I find a sameness about many Italian frames, then &
> now. I confess a weakness for De Rosa, but are they
> really so very different from equivalent Masi &
> Colnago etc. -- but for the hearts and clubs and M or
> whatever? All very finely made, no doubt about that,
> but I expect that from all the reputable builders,
> wherever they are from.
>
> I apologize to the list for skewering the Paramount
> sacred cow and helping pile the kindling up for a
> public burning. But even the most holy of bovines has
> got its ribs and briskets and chops and for me, one
> lone high end USA-made classic frame does not a proud
> tradition make.
>
> I'll wager that the obsession with Masi has much to do
> with the fact that they were USA-made for a period,
> and less to do with their Italian origins.
>
> Canada's contribution to cycling frames is hardy worth
> mentioning. We make great fur coats, hockey sticks and
> maple syrup. CCM (Canada's Schwinn, but also a major
> maker of hockey gear) made just one or two models out
> of 531 but they were not that special.
>
> Much later, Giuseppe Marinoni (a former Italian
> tailor) began making classic Italian style frames just
> a few miles from here, some incised with maple leaves
> or fleu de lys (depending if the buyer was an
> anglophone or francophone), but that's about it for my
> country.
>
> Emanuel Lowi
> Montreal, Quebec